Fire destroys Dollar General in Tulia

Published 2:00 pm, Sunday, August 30, 2009

TULIA - It took firefighters from five departments about two hours to control a blaze that destroyed the downtown Dollar General store and a vacant building here today.

The store manager, employees and a customer were inside the building when one of the fire alarms went off. The customer and employees rushed out of the building and called 911 about 9:50 a.m.

Fire departments from Kress, Happy, Canyon and Nazareth came to aid the Tulia Volunteer Fire Department in battling the fire. Personnel from Swisher Memorial Hospital brought in the Panhandle Regional Emergency Response unit to provide firefighters with air conditioning, drinking water, oxygen and medical supplies.

The south brick wall of an adjacent vacant building collapsed about 11:20 a.m., and fire burst out of the front of the two buildings. The building entrances also came crashing down suddenly.

A firefighter heard the boom and jumped out of the way of the falling front wall, said onlooker Rubin Herrera.

Small explosions, like the pop of a firecracker, could be heard from the alley where onlookers gathered. Several residents assumed the sound came from paint cans bursting.

Just two buildings south of Dollar General, Merle Norman Design and Trends was filled with smoke. The owners, Richard and Yolanda Villegas, tried to grab inventory, but the smoke was too heavy.

"We just dropped it and ran outside," Yolanda Villegas said.

About four other employees and a few customers had to evacuate in a hurry.

"My (customer) left with shampoo in her hair," said Merle Norman employee Noemi Rey.

The Merle Norman building sustained smoke damage, but appeared to escape the flames.

Next door to Merle Norman is accounting firm Brown, Graham, and Co. Directly north of Dollar General is Quality Signage, an empty building and Tulia Floral. Those facilities appeared to be untouched by the flames.

Plastic windows on the vacant building began to melt from the heat, and onlookers could feel the heat as far as 20 yards away.

In a bit of irony, onlookers stood outside the Conestoga Restaurant, which moved to its new location on Northwest Second adjacent to the Dollar General several months ago after fire destroyed its old building.

The fire was under control around 11:45, but firefighters continued to hose down the area for more than 15 minutes.

Officials did not immediately release the cause of the fire. No injuries were reported.

The Dollar General had planned to move into a recently constructed building on Second Street later this summer.